The city of Cleveland and the U.S.

Department of Justice agree that the federal consent decree compelling improvements to policing should end.

Spotted lanternfly are now a statewide concern, and Cleveland Heights is celebrating its own gold medal champion.

U.S.

women's hockey player Layla Edwards.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb announced Friday the city and the U.S.

Department of Justice have petitioned a judge to release the city from a federal consent decree sparked more than a decade ago by an investigation that found a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Patel has sued the county executive office, saying it has no authority to take over control of the sheriff's finances.

Ohio is putting its foot down on the invasive lanternfly with new quarantine rules, and apparently putting your foot down on the pests won't solve the problem, because they're now so pervasive.

And Cleveland Heights is still celebrating Olympian Leila Edwards, who has broken barriers for women of color in hockey and now has a gold medal with her crucial assist against Canada.

Joining me for the roundtable from industry and public Media, criminal justice reporter Matt Richman and senior arts reporter Kavya Bhatia in Columbus.

Statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler let's get ready to round table The city of Cleveland and the U.S.

Department of Justice agree that the city has done enough to be released from a consent decree imposed after a federal investigation in 2015 found a pattern and practice of excessive force and civil rights violations.

They've asked a federal judge to sign off.

The mayor says work still needs to be done, but the city should be in charge of it, not the feds.

So, Matt, we've been hearing from the city really, since Mayor Bibb came into office, that it's time to wind this thing down.

The federal monitor has said maybe not.

But now we get to the point where the DOJ is agreeing with them and saying, hey, judge, let's end this thing.

Yeah.

So, you know, they're back in in April.

Of of last year, the Trump administration or President Trump issued an executive order saying the Department of Justice needs to move toward rescinding or ending all the existing, consent decrees.

So, you know, when that came out, it was clear that it was it was a matter of time.

During budget hearings, this week, law director Mark Griffin told council that, you know, as soon as last May, he started direct outreach to the Department of Justice to say, hey, what about us?

We we think that we're ready to go.

And he's been arguing that because the consent decree and the investigation that kind of led to it, was based on use of force and was based on the way the police respond to people in mental health crisis.

That those were like the two main pillars of what the investigation found.

The the police department was, you know, had had biggest problems with that.

The department really just needed to get to the point where they had those two areas kind of under control and fixed to really have addressed the problems the Department of Justice found and the monitor, the monitor who oversees the the consent decree in the last year did kind of full assessments of the progress that the cities made on those two areas particularly, and found that they've really done a good job.

And so in the motion in court from the Department of Justice in the city and in the city, going to arguments in court for years, they've said that because we've done so well in those those two areas, it really is time for us to to move on.

So there this is not just a situation where the Trump administration, with its blanket announcement that consent decrees really need to come to an end.

So this isn't just that where the feds are coming in and saying, we're just kind of lifting these on people.

They're agreeing that the city has done enough, especially in those two main areas.

But there are a whole lot of other areas where it was supposed to make progress and maybe has, but it has not checked off every single box.

No, no.

Absolutely not.

I mean, that's one of the surprises because the, you know, in the consent decree, it kind of said, well, see, you have these problems, but you're never really going to fix them unless you fix the way officers are overseen.

If you fix the way that, you know, you have to fix the way accountability is, you know, officer, accountability is a handled that, you know, you can put in policies and training, but there has to be that oversight and the kind of structural changes to make sure that years down the road, you're not backsliding into kind of the old ways.

And as far as you know, the monitor coming in and checking those areas, making sure that when officers are promoted, they're looking at kind of, some of these new elements that have been added by the consent decree and the way officers have kind of taken those up or, you know, is discipline kind of administered fairly and consistently and doesn't change based on kind of politics or depending upon who the individual officer is and how they're viewed by, you know, their, their supervisors.

They haven't really gotten into those questions yet.

And so it'll be interesting to see if Judge Oliver says he wants to see more.

So the judge still has to sign off on this.

This is not just okay, the two parties agree.

It should end.

The judge could say nope.

I think there's a few more things you got to do.

And we're going to let this go on or we'll find out today.

He might say, yeah, you know what?

You're right.

That's enough.

What the mayor is saying is not we're finished.

What he's saying is a lot more work to do, but we can handle it now.

Yeah.

And, you know, he seemed to indicate that the, the, the monitor wasn't necessarily going away immediately.

That you know, I mean, there's a there's a police accountability team within the city that was created to kind of be the, the point person inside city government to handle all consent decree matters.

There's no indication that, you know, the person who runs that doctor, Lee Anderson and her staff are going anywhere.

So, and it'll be interesting to hear what they say in court today.

There there's kind of a bit of a door open to continue to work, but what that will look like is really going to be a big question.

You know, we saw, Doctor Anderson at the press conference yesterday along with the mayor.

Also, we saw Blaine Griffin, the president of Cleveland City Council.

Is his voice the voice of counsel?

Do they agree that that the consent decree should be lifted?

Yeah.

Yes.

You know, for for years.

What you've heard from council is that, they are kind of tired of this outside oversight that it's not that it's costing the city a lot of money and exactly how much money really would be saved by ending the consent decree is a matter of some debate.

Something like 5 million a year.

Well, it depends.

Yeah.

You know, that's a whole.

But it depends on what you put in.

Exactly what will go away when the consent decree is over.

We know that the the bills that go to the federal monitor, those would end.

But that comes out to and this is also a matter debate.

Maybe 2 million at the most.

But even that I think is, is inflated.

If you just look at the bills that they submit to court.

But you know, I think that, there's been a lot of concern that, that somebody like City Council that, you know, there there are enough internal oversight mechanisms set up by the city, and they don't need this, this outsider coming in and telling them how to how to run things.

But it seems as though they did need that outsider, because this came in 2015.

We've seen a lot of reform, according to the city and the monitor, in the last 11 years, what any of that happened?

Had it not been forced, had to.

That's a very good question.

You know, I think the they there was there were so many changes to the way the police department did its work.

You know, from how it recruited officers, how it trained them to the equipment that they are able to use.

Just kind of everything and and.

Yeah, the idea that the city would have undertaken that years long process that was so all encompassing on its own and stuck with it, for, you know, years is kind of it's hard to believe that that would have happened.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Patel filed a lawsuit this week claiming the county executive who appointed him has no right to take over financial control of his department.

that.

What prompted the legal action?

First of all, what prompted the executive to say, I got to step in and then secondly, the sheriff to say, I'm filing suit about it.

Well, so this was kind of this came to a head during budget hearings in December.

And, you know, the the county executive will present a budget that involves, like, you know, recommendations or requests coming from every department, and particularly this year, the the executive very often will say, no, you're not getting that much money and then comes up with the budget.

It goes to council.

And then each of those department heads who work for the county executive go into county council and say, yeah, we can live with this.

The the budget office from the sheriff's Department did not do that when it went to council and said, they're underestimating what we need for overtime and this is not going to work for us.

And, you know, and they they argued a bit over the math and there were some kind of like public back and forth at the hearing.

And shortly after that, the we're kind of in the middle of it.

The executive brought the, brought the, the budgeting office that is under the sheriff that it normally just handles the sheriff's budget and is overseen by the sheriff, kind of physically moved that staff into county headquarters and said, you know, you you work under us now, this is kind of part of our budget.

And that didn't go over well with the with the sheriff's office.

And, you know, it this was an issue at this budget hearing.

But if you go back, you know, the last three, three, four years.

And I think further than that.

But, every year that the sheriff comes to count county council multiple times a year and says they need more money, and this is, you know, in the quarter, ten, 12, $15 million a year.

Yeah, in 2022, 16,000,000 in 2023, 19,000,000 in 2024, 16 million, 2025.

It looked like it might be around 15 million.

Again, it's not a couple of bucks.

Yeah, yeah.

And so, you know, the executive saying we have to get this under control.

So isn't the sheriff though in our and this is exclusive to Cuyahoga County but isn't the sheriff appointed by the executive.

Yeah.

That's part of why this this lawsuit was filed is because it's not it's not so clear as if it was an elected sheriff, which is how it is in every other, county in Ohio.

You know, there there's independence with that office.

And it was a real, real issue with the problems in the jail in 2019, 2018, because it turned out that the county executive at the time, Armin Kulish, had sort of gone in, put his person in charge of the jail and sort of usurped the power from the sheriff over running the jail.

And that was that became a big problem.

The person that the county executive put in that position was eventually charged, for crimes, for the way the jail was run.

And so county council kind of said, you know, you need to let the sheriff handle their own affairs.

And that includes the jail.

That's primarily the jail.

And Chris Ronayne and the executive office are saying, yeah, sure, but not the finance, not the administrative.

Right.

And it's not clearly spelled out where the where the kind of line ends.

And so, you know, the, the county prosecutor, Michael O'Malley, and the county sheriff's office obviously have said no, you know, if if we're independent, that means we're independent over how we spend our money.

And the county executive said, no, but but O'Malley is elected.

Yes.

Not an appointed.

Well, yeah, he was speaking on behalf of the of the sheriff.

Right.

Another point.

We didn't hear anything specifically about the suit because of the pending lawsuit from the executive officer from the county.

But we did hear them say this was a waste of taxpayer money that the sheriff is embarking on.

What kind of money are we talking about?

I think, Cleve, cleveland.com got a number of around 100,000.

If it kind of gets up to the to trial, I mean, if it goes to trial, I guess who knows what what'll happen then?

Yeah, about 100,000 to, you know, to basically sue one with a one bar to county government to the other party county.

Yeah.

I don't think I'd ever thought I'd see this.

And it just seems like literally the airing of dirty Laundry.

Yeah.

And it's to it's basically to kind of interpret law as opposed to, you know, it's not some great, kind of, mistreatment being done here by to, to someone.

They're just trying to interpret the law Employees of Lorain County Department of Job and Family Services went on strike Wednesday morning after contract talks failed to reach a new deal.

The previous contract for employees, who are represented by United Auto Workers Local 2192, expired in September.

So how far apart could be are the two sides?

It sounded like the offer was 12% over three years.

You might look at that and say, okay, that's something.

The employees, though, are saying that's not enough.

Why?

Well, the contract is, you know, it expired in September.

They want back pay to that.

And they would like, just I guess generally, better wages, not just the 12% over, over three years.

The, the the thought from the union representatives, is that a lot of the folks who are running job and family services are paid little enough that they qualify for the services that are offered by JFS.

Food pantries, Medicare, help, that sort of thing.

Wow.

So they're saying, listen, we yeah, we need we don't make enough 12% of too low a salary is still too, still too low a salary.

And over three years and and it's been.

What is that, five months?

The previous one expired.

They would like the back pay retroactive to that as well.

Meanwhile, the county, leaders are not backing down.

What do they have to say?

Well, as of Tuesday night, they said, you know, this is our best offer.

And, the county commissioners put out a video saying that, the the demands are a little bit, unreasonable from the other side.

So the, county, the people that are that are negotiating this with the union, they're saying that that we're all set.

This is where we're at.

And so Wednesday morning, the workers went on the picket line.

As of this morning, they were still there.

So what is happening to the vital services that job and family services provide?

Well, does it the the it's the, I'm not sure what else he would say, but Chris Kabat, who runs things over there, said we're going to keep the services going.

So I guess he's going to find a way to keep the services going somehow.

It, it reminds me of, oh, about 20 years ago on SNL, they would have George W Bush and he would.

His catchphrase was, we're working hard.

Do you remember that so?

Well, it reminds me of that, because.

Because, you know, what else are you going to say?

You can't say that.

We're just closing the doors.

So, that's his opinion.

The union reps, which, Dave Green, he's the regional, rep who by the way, is also handling Con Selmer, the closure of the Con Selmer instrument plant.

He was previously with GM Lordstown Union rep.

So he's he's familiar with this area, very passionate.

And, he was saying, look, we've had 90 people leave in the last few years for better paying jobs from this department.

So something needs to be done.

What a game.

Yesterday I was in a teams meeting, sound off surreptitiously watching team USA women's hockey.

I'm sorry coworkers.

My attention was elsewhere and then we came from behind to Ty Canada with time running out, and then secured A21 victory in three on three overtime.

Way to go, Layla Edwards of Cleveland Heights.

Her shot that was spot on redirected in the final minutes of regulation by Hillary Knight for the game tying goal, was a crucial assist by Edwards.

And, we had our folks out there, Karen, at the ice rink in Cleveland Heights, which is really cool.

They were actually sitting on the ice watching.

There it is.

They're watching the game as it was, being played out.

What were your reactions?

Karen, I know you're a hockey fan.

Well, this is this is great.

I mean, women's hockey has just the United States has just dominated.

And women's hockey, I mean, since 1988, when they started playing women's hockey in the Olympics.

The U.S.

has appeared in seven of the eight gold medal games.

We've won three golds.

Canada still beats us, but hey, we're getting there.

And then Leila Edwards, the first black woman to win gold for USA in women's hockey.

It's just amazing.

And here's an interesting connection.

She played for Wisconsin.

That team is coached by Mark Johnson, who scored two goals in that Miracle on Ice game.

Yeah, back in Lake Placid in 1980 where the U.S.

beat the Soviet Union.

So that's it's just really kind of a, coming around story, so to speak, where Ken Morrow of Bowling Green State University was on the team.

That's right.

Cambiar that it really is groundbreaking.

Now it's breaking barriers for women of color in hockey.

It is.

She is as Karen said, the first black woman to to be able to do this.

She got us an assist, to use the parlance went from the Kelsey brothers helping, to fund.

So I think she has over over a dozen family and friends who were able to attend, and a lot of them because of their help and their shout outs, because they're all Cleveland Heights folks.

And, you know, they stay close knit.

I mean, Leila left home, left this area when she was 13 to attend school in New York and then Wisconsin.

But they they stayed in touch.

Yeah.

Cleveland Heights, definitely rallies around the Kelsey's now, Layla Edwards as well.

And, yeah, there was a GoFundMe and people were contributing.

And then there was this $10,000 contribution from an anonymous person.

And it turns out, as she's acknowledged, it was the Kelsey's that were, certainly helping to send the family there.

What a cool story.

It was very cool.

I was and I was also on a teams, but I was watching out of the corner of my eye, and I actually saw our friend Mike Polk at a watch party on a different on a competing channel.

And then I was able to find the, the rest of the game.

And my with my daughter and my wife were watching, too.

Ohio has expanded its quarantine for the spotted lanternfly to all counties in the state.

The invasive species was first spotted in Ohio in 2020.

And we're generally a peaceable people here, but if you see one of those suckers, you're supposed to smash it.

Karen, what does the quarantine itself mean for Ohio?

Well, last year it was in 18 counties.

This year.

It's considered spread throughout the state.

And so what it means is that inspections will have to happen on trees and nursery stock that are leaving the state.

The real concern here is the damage it can do to apples, hops, black walnut trees, and especially grapes and grapevines.

Ohio's wine industry, according to the Department of Agriculture, is estimated to bring in $6 billion to the state's economy.

So if you start messing with that, there's a real concern that the spotted lanternfly could have an effect on that.

Got some thoughts on that one from Stephen, who sends in an email.

He says don't feel bad, Karen.

My understanding from at least one entomologist is that they are so numerous now that our squishing efforts will have basically no impact.

And although the income crop damage is very real, the overall plant damage is not devastating like we originally thought it would be.

Something will have to be done for crops, but eradication is likely no longer possible.

That's Steve's point.

Stevens point of view, and the Department of Agriculture director, Brian Baldridge, actually said that the eradication plan just doesn't exist.

And so now it's just trying to, as he says, protect our neighbors and to try to keep the thing from spreading into other states, though it spread here from Pennsylvania.

So you can also spray white vinegar on it, I'm told, as opposed to squishing it.

These are the two ways to get rid of it, but you're supposed to get rid of them when you see them.

And it's just really hard to do for me.

And I hear you and I hard to do, I think for Lucy as well, who's a frequent contributor here, and she sends us an email saying if people were serious about reducing or eliminating lanternfly, they'd simply paint certain trees with a nontoxic immuno, contraception, a fertility disrupter, so they can't reproduce.

Personally, I don't kill for ethical reasons.

Cleveland Metroparks takes in $90 million annually and could lead this novel birth control movement.

That's Lucy's.

That's very interesting.

That's actually a good point.

I was a topiary park in Columbus, right by you, Karen.

Every tree was covered.

This is last fall.

Every tree was covered.

So we would have been there all day squishing these things and.

Wow.

Yeah, it wouldn't have made a difference.

public safety and core city services are at the top of Mayor Justin Bibbs budget priority list.

Spending for police and fire accounts for roughly half the city's operating budget.

Matt, what will the city focus on specifically in terms of safety spending?

So, you know, in the last couple of years, they've they've taken some steps to boost officer salary.

They've, kind of got the dwindling numbers of the safety force under control.

And so it's salaries, they're spending about $14 million or they're budgeted to spend for $40 million more.

And that's rich go to salaries they, they are trying to get from I'm not sure what the most recent number is.

It's hovers right around 1200 uniformed officers.

Right, right.

Now give or take.

Yeah.

And they're trying to get up to 1350 and that'll be a cost as well.

Yeah.

The salaries and it's not going to happen.

Yeah.

Ideally they'll get 180 officers through the academy in a year, which they are have so far been unable to do the last few few years.

And then you know, if they do that and have no basically nobody leave the department, retire or just quit over the course of the year, then they could make it.

But that doesn't happen.

So, you know, they're probably down on 1200 and they'll have some money left over as they do each each year.

And a couple other things the mayor said during these, budget discussions, the city stands by the consolidation plan that will shrink the footprint of the city school district, even though council offered some opposition.

What was that exchange like?

This is this is pretty heated.

You know, each council member really wants to protect the schools in their ward for, for obvious reasons.

And some of them sort of have a historic place in the ward and really hate to see them leave.

The mayor just kind of said that he is trying to deal with the reality that they're shrinking enrollment numbers, he said, it's 50% since in the last 20 years the enrollment numbers have declined.

Right.

And he's saying that, you know, a previous mayor should have dealt with this.

This is just kicked down the road.

And I'm here to kind of accept reality and and do what needs to be done.

It does seem like he wants to do these, you know, sort of the big things like and the consent decree actually shrink the footprint of the school district because he says it needs to be done.

Get rid of Burke Lakefront Airport.

I mean, there are these major projects that you he might explain in each one of those situations, should have been dealt with but hasn't been.

Yeah.

The slogan from his, from his sort of longshot campaign was, was Cleveland can't Wait.

That was what he was saying is that we have to start doing the hard things.

And, you know, he ran against sort of an establishment that said, oh, this is too, too difficult, too, too complicated.

We've looked at it.

It's just not going to happen.

And he's saying I, you know, gonna make it happen.

We talked last week about how the city lost more than $3 million in grant money.

The state clawed it back because it was way too slow in replacing doors and windows in LED, homes that had, high levels of lead.

And this would be one of the things that would help with that.

Some of the explanation then was, well, the requirements, the federal requirements were too heavy and we we'd had to remediate all the lead.

And it was just it was a slow process.

The mayor, though, basically fessed up and said, nope, that was us.

And we didn't do a very good job.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, initially members of his administration went to city council and blame the state.

It came out that some of the restrictions that they were referring to at City council were not part of the state requirements in the grant.

But then the mayor went went to council and said, yeah, this was this was our fault.

And, you know, they, they, they put a cap on the amount of money that could go towards remediation in each house.

That was not something created by the state.

And they, they made limits on what parts of the house could actually be be worked on that were not necessary.

And then, you know, this is something, you know, you want to do a big thing the way that getting money out of the door at City Hall works and all the, you know, the time it takes all the, red tape that you have to get through and then for grants the rules about, like, how it's supposed to be reimbursement.

All of this stuff makes it so hard to get any kind of, like, City Hall funded work done.

And that's one of the things that I think, you know, in this term, you're going to see a growing pressure on the administration to change.

And we usually get some good fireworks when it comes down to the final budget, where council's input is, given they are the ones in house to pass it.

So I'm sure we'll hear some more from each of these budget.

Yeah.

And then, you know, they they went to council and didn't talk about how the, consent decree was, ending.

And that was the day before they announced that it was ending.

So it'll be interesting if council says, why don't you come back and talk about this?

Yeah, it'll be another another one.

We can we can look forward to Monday, on The Sound of Ideas on 89 seven Wksu, we'll bring you the latest Sound of Ideas community tour focused on artificial intelligence and its impact across our lives and our livelihoods.

And join the next community tour on the future of Burke Lakefront Airport at Burke Lakefront Airport, March 4th.

Go to Ideo stream.org/community tour to register.

It's free.

And so is the parking.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe.